That book you long to write? Here are 12 compelling reasons to get started.

What you do for yourself dies with you – what you do for others remains and is immortal – Albert Pike

1. Your book is your legacy – and ideas are the most powerful legacy of all.
2. A book will boost your credibility – amongst your professional peers and your clients or customers.
3. A book is a major showcase for your skills, knowledge and experience.
4. Readers will get a much deeper sense of you and your values – which is vital to them getting to ‘know, like and trust’ you. For some, it’ll be a critical point in making the decision to seek you out and work with you.
5. A book opens doors to collaboration and partnership – people will seek you out because your opinion matters.
6. It’ll help you grow a substantial audience of the ‘right’ people. If people read and enjoy your book, it means they have a shared value set. They will be open to pretty much everything else you do.
7. A book creates public speaking opportunities – and speaking in public is the number one way to connect with people.
8. It’s an ethically sound way to ‘sell’ your work and ideas – there’s no boasting or bragging involved and writers are generally perceived as authentic. It’s a window into you and who you really are.
9. Books get recommended and passed around – it’s a crucial part of your ‘word of mouth’ marketing. Bloggers and journalists start to take you seriously. If they start interviewing you or talking about your work, you can overcome a huge hurdle – other people’s voices are often much more influential than our own!
10. Books create income – some from book sales, but mostly from all the other opportunities that find their way to you.
11. A book, distributed via Amazon, Kindle and booksellers, boosts your findability. You’ll be much easier to find on Google, and your Amazon listing often comes up first on search results.
12. A book is the best business card you’ll ever have!

To be honest, these 12 key points are just the start of the benefits you will reap from getting into print. 

If you have even the vaguest idea for a book, for goodness sake don’t wait for the whole idea to be fully formed in your mind. Start collecting ideas. Start blogging, start tweeting, journalling. Use the audio recorder on your phone to log ideas as they occur. Later, explore software like Scrivener, which allows you to assemble concepts in a non-linear way.

What are you waiting for!

I’m running the much-loved How to Write and Publish your Book course with Barefoot Coaching again in January – you can find out more and book here.

All the best – Pete

Need some help in getting started? I offer 1-1 support to people to want to be coached through book-writing, self-publishing and crowdfunding. I do a one hour 1-1 Skype/phone masterclass with accompanying checklists – which will help sort your ideas and get off to a great start.

My second book, The Art of Shouting Quietly, was self published and crowdfunded. The campaign was oversubscribed and I sold the book in 15 countries before I’d finished writing it. There are lots of ways to get published now. I wonder which route might suit you?

You can email me here